What to Do If Border Patrol Asks You for Documentation

MCALLEN, TX - JUNE 23: Dozens of women, men and their children, many fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador, arrive at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. Once families and individuals are released and given a court hearing date they are brought to the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center to rest, clean up, enjoy a meal and to get guidance to their next destination. Before President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that halts the practice of separating families who are seeking asylum, over 2,300 immigrant children had been separated from their parents in the zero-tolerance policy for border crossers (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)Spencer Platt

On June 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Maine set up a checkpoint on Interstate 95, approximately 80 miles from the Canadian border, according to The New York Times. The Times reported that for 11 hours that day, the agents asked every motorist for proof that they are U.S. citizens. “If you want to continue down the road,” one agent told a pair of reporters from the Bangor Daily News, “we need to know what country you’re a citizen of.”

Elsewhere in the country, including Florida and New York, CBP agents have recently conducted impromptu sweeps on commercial buses, asking passengers for proof of citizenship.

These checkpoints and bus sweeps aren’t new — CBP has been conducting them for years — but they seem to have become more common since President Donald Trump was inaugurated. In May, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine filed a lawsuit against CBP and the Department of Homeland Security, claiming that there have been “increasing reports” of CBP “stopping bus passengers to check their citizenship status without a warrant, reasonable suspicion, or probable cause,” according to the lawsuit.

Federal laws allow CBP to ask people for proof of citizenship if they’re “within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States,” which is defined as 100 miles from any part of the U.S. border or coastline, according to the ACLU. This area is commonly referred to as the “100-mile border zone.” It includes big cities like Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, as well as entire states like Florida and Michigan, as shown in a recent data analysis by an MIT researcher.

U.S. law does not require citizens to carry papers proving their citizenship, according to the ACLU. (There have, however, been several cases of U.S. citizens being arrested and even deported by ICE.) People who have certain forms of legal status, including a green card, are required to carry this documentation at all times. As Vox’s Alexia Fernández Campbell explained, CBP isn’t looking for proof that you’re a citizen — what they’re really looking for is proof that you aren’t.

CBP may be able to ask you for your papers, but that doesn’t mean you’re always required to comply. “If an immigration official stops you, you can choose to remain silent,” Adriana Piñon, policy counsel and senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, tells Teen Vogue. She says that choosing to remain silent or asking to speak to a lawyer could prolong your interaction with the officers, but it could also shield you from deportation. “When one is speaking with a law enforcement officer — and an immigration officer in particular — it’s very important to remember that anything you say can be used against you. If what you say gives them grounds to arrest you, then they will or they can.”

“Exercising your right to remain silent should not constitute reasonable suspicion for any crime,” Piñon says. “If you exercise your right to remain silent and they arrest you, that would violate your basic constitutional rights.” Those rights apply even if you’re not a U.S. citizen — even if you’re undocumented, she says. But, Piñon noted, there are some people who are required to show CBP their documents, such as green card holders or people who are on temporary student visas. She suggested that anyone who is unsure about whether they are considered “non-immigrants” should contact an immigration attorney.

Advertisement

If the agents have reasonable suspicion that you’re in the U.S. without authorization, however, they can still detain you. Reasonable suspicion requires less proof than probable cause, but agents must still “have specific facts about you that make it reasonable to believe” that you’re violating immigration law, Piñon wrote in a blog post for the ACLU. CBP can’t claim reasonable suspicion just because you’re speaking another language, as one CBP agent is alleged to have done in Montana last month. “One of the biggest concerns for us when it comes to immigration enforcement is racial profiling,” Piñon says. If an agent does detain you, you have the right to ask them why they’re doing so.

Angus Johnston, a historian of American student activism and professor at Hostos Community College in New York City, tells Teen Vogue that for people who feel compelled to act, CBP bus sweeps are an opportunity to remind others of their rights. “The most important thing to do, other than researching your rights, is to plan out in advance how you want to react to various situations,” Johnston says. “When we’re taken by surprise, we tend to go along with what we’re asked —or told—to do. If we’ve strategized and planned for resistance, we’re more likely to resist.”

One example is Tiana Smalls, a woman who was riding a bus from California to Nevada that was boarded by CBP in June. As soon as the agents boarded the bus, she stood up and told other passengers, “This is a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights! You don’t have to show them sh*t!”

Piñon and Johnston both explained that pushing back against CBP isn’t entirely without risk — but it can help protect others. “None of us is a superhero,” Johnston says. “But if we give ourselves permission to try to do something anyway, we’re likely to act in ways that will be helpful to others.”